'Tis the Season

Jess: So, here's the promised Advent post. As many of you may (or may not) have known, Advent is the season of preparation for Christmas (which really does last twelve days, from December 25 to January 6). We're supposed to prepare our hearts for Jesus' coming into the world. But, for most, Advent is the time to go Christmas shopping, clean the house for guests, prepare for meals, and generally get stressed out by life, instead of enjoying God's gift to us.

My family never did the Advent calendar thing, we didn't go shopping on Black Friday, and Christmas was an exciting time for us. My grandma always came to visit for a couple of weeks while Josiah and I were out of school for break. We put up the tree together, made Christmas cookies, and generally just had a fun family time. I didn't ever think of Advent as a stressful time. We sang some of my favorite songs in church, we lit the Advent wreath, and life was awesome.

Last year, Advent was definitely a season of preparation, and a stressful one at that. Wes graduated December 19, we had Christmas with his parents, and then we got married on January 1. There was a lot to do and very little time to do it, but it was fun in its own way. I feel like we missed out on the preparation time, though.

This year, we're doing a much better job of preparing for Jesus to come into the world. We put up our Christmas decorations and have bought all but one of the gifts we're giving. We're trying to think about what Jesus' coming into the world means for us, and realize that the season isn't about how much money we spend, how amazing our gifts are, what kind of food we serve, or how many parties we have. Taking back Christmas from commercialism is hard, but hopefully we can do something. I pointed out to Wes as we were walking down the Christmas aisle last night that I felt like we needed more Christmas decorations--it's amazing how retailers can influence our ideas of this Christian holiday...

Wes: Christmastime is here! Happiness and cheer! (That, by the way, was brought to you by Charlie Brown and friends). So I really like Advent time. Growing up, Advent was the only time of year when my family would do devotionals together around the table. Each night, after dinner, we would light the Advent wreath and go through a mini Bible study. I really loved that time with my family.

Now, Jess and I have the opportunity to make some Advent/Christmas traditions of our own. We've already implemented a couple of things, like making our Thanksgiving guests help set up the Christmas tree and decorate the house. We've also talked about different traditions concerning gift giving. I have a friend who, instead of piling presents under the tree for her kids, gives each of them 3 gifts-- one for each gift given to Jesus. One gift is supposed to be practical (like myrrh), one spiritual (like frankincense), and one fun (like gold). I think this would be a neat tradition to implement when we start having youngster scampering about the house.

This Advent season, my sermons are focusing around the Isaiah passage that is mentioned in each Gospel concerning John the Baptist. Tomorrow, I'm going to be talking about the section "A voice crying out in the wilderness, 'Prepare the way of the Lord.'" And how a probably better translation would be "A voice crying out, 'In the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord.'" What does it mean that God has called us to prepare the way for Christ in the wilderness places of hearts. It's a neat take on the Advent call for preparation, and one that I unashamedly stole from Pastor Greg Ronning from TLU.

Well, this was a shorter blog than usual, but I hope that you enjoy. Tune in next week for a Christmas cookie debate and much, much more!

You stay classy, World Wide Web!


-wes and jess